Tuesday, February 17, 2015

On Sunday, my colleague, Jeff Simpson, wrote a post at his site on Purple Wisconsin, a collection of bloggers and paid right wing propagandists hosted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Simpson's post, which he replicated here, was about how Jim Bender, the face of the education profiteering group, School Choice Wisconsin, had sent out open record requests asking for personal information on all the kids in over 30 different school districts.

In his post, Simpson expressed his concern about not only what Bender's intentions were, but also the precedent he was setting. Simpson feared that sex predators, stalkers and angry ex-spouses could follow this routine and expose the children to harm.

Simpson was hardly the only person to express these concerns.

However, Simpson's post at Purple Wisconsin was enough to send Bender on a bender. Bender went whining and crying to Ernst-Ulrich Franzen, a member of the paper's editorial board, complaining that Simpson compared him to a pedophile. Even though Simpson went to great pains to do just the opposite, Franzen jumped on the chance to stifle the truth and took down the blog site.

On Monday, squawk show host and adulterer Charlie Sykes went on a rampage against Simpson. With the sound of his spittle hitting the microphone, Sykes said that Simpson lived in a "fever swamp" and called him "demented," "sick," and "a liar."

Sykes went on to say how MJS was wrong for ever giving Simpson their format to use and that he should be banned from the site. The real kicker was when Sykes mewled that if a conservative had done this, they would be banned from writing there ever again.

Sykes' tirade does show that he is a damn slow learner, since he's already been sued for libel before. (Ironically, the only reason that Sykes is still on the air is because of the unions he loves to bash on a daily basis.)

Unfortunately, Franzen and his boss, David Haynes, pandered to the faux outrage from the right wing nuts and have taken Simpson's blog down entirely.

This only goes to show that they are as big hypocrites as Sykes is.

I would remind the gentle reader of the time that Christian Schneider ran with the fabricated story of how Kyle Woods, a gay Republican operative, was supposedly beaten up by the partner of US Representative Mark Pocan. When it was revealed that Schneider was not telling the truth, the paper did not ban him as Sykes asserted would happen, but promoted him to being one of their paid columnists.

It should also be noted that Sykes himself continues to have Schneider, as well as Brian Sikma, who also lied about the Woods story, as regular guests on his radio and TV shows as well as contributors to his website, Right Wisconsin (funded by Wisconsin Club for Growth).

Heh, a liar hosting liars, yet we're supposed to be upset about a guy who actually tells the truth.

In summary, we have further confirmation that Sykes is a bloviating, pompous ass who is a liar and a hypocrite. It is little wonder he needs to have the financial support of his corporate masters to still have even the illusion of relevance.

We also have further confirmation that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and all of Journal Broadcasting is nothing more than a right wing propaganda machine that isn't as interested in telling the truth as they are with squashing dissent. It is not surprising that their circulation numbers have dropped so low that they needed to sell out to out of state interests before they went belly up.

If you somehow still subscribe to this tabloid and haven't cancelled your subscription yet, you should seriously ask yourself why you haven't done so already.

On a closing note to Jeff, congratulations on kicking the hornets nest. This kind of uproar shows that you hit close to home. But you haven't truly made the big time until you get nominated to Sykes' Deep Tunnel Award.

24 comments:

Agree that if the Righty hosts are screeching, Jeff has hit the mark. Keep it up.

But there's a second story here- Jim Bender and Charlie Sykes both get significant money from the Bradley Foundation, which makes them co-workers. If Sykes is not revealing this, it's a violation of FCC Payola rules.

And with the Walker Administration hiring Brian Schimming at WHEDA yesterday, the same argument could be made for him, if part of his "audition" for the job may have involved talking up Walker and the budget on Icki's radio show. I certainly think that's worthy of some further investigation.

I think Walker is the most despicable liar. His son tweeted union thugs were protesting outside of the grandparent's house. Unbelievable!. I live the mess everyday that he has made out of this state. He is a public servant that is supposed to serve the public that he has absolutely no regard for. To that I say UNBELIEVABLE!!!

I talked to Bender. He never said a word to Franzen. Simpson's tirade had so many factual errors and sleazy innuendo, the folks at JSOnline had no choice. His exit was a long time in coming. Not because of ideology, but because he is a poor writer and makes half-baked accusations that only a fringe of society feel comfortable reading.

I have no idea. I am not sure that is how the system works, but I don't think that is the point. You can ask those questions and others in a manner that don't make you sound unhinged. Accusing folks of purposefully releasing data to pedophiles is just sick and vile. If that is the level you need to stoop to make a policy argument, then don't be surprised when people react negatively.

After reading the Simpson Purple blog post twice, I come to a different conclusion. Mr. Simpson states in the post that he doesn't conside Mr. Bender a pedophile. Please show me the sentence where Mr. Simpson makes the accusation that you claim is sick and vile.

I'd like to ask you how much experience you have with child predators. If you where a union thug (the level Wisconsin republicans stooped to make their policy argument), working alongside me, you would have spent your workday today and yesterday dealing with stomach-turning stuff from two child sex predators. They bring me to 5 so far this year, and it's not even the focus of my job.

You state you have no idea and are not sure how the system works. If you read the blog post, what Mr. Simpson writes is what can happen when you show predators information that should never reach their hands. Once private information is released, control over that information is lost. Mr. Bender and those that seek this information should be stopped.

Anonymous 6:18, thank you for the work that you do. My daughter is a kindergarten teacher, and in only her first months of teaching, a child revealed to her issues at home that led to uncovering a molestation ring -- and led to my daughter being harassed, testifying in court, but being strong for the survival of the child.

This came to mind when I read the story about the request for home addresses, phone numbers, and more of many thousands of children in our schools -- because Mr. Bender (who is a fine man, I'm sure) clearly does not anticipate need to protect these files, once in his hands. So, I applaud the superintendents who stepped up to do what they can to protect their students, too -- but it is not enough. Our legislators ought to be acting now to come up with a process that abides but FERPA but also protects children.

Instead, they're posturing about politics that serves themselves or, in the case a leading legislator who positions herself as a champion of children and who ought to be busy about the work of the Joint Finance Committee, is said to be essentially living out of the state. . . .

Really, the Journal should hold it head in shame?Shame requires a set of moral values, which the JS has shown that they do not have. Its like the old saying, their is no honor among thieves. The Walker backers in the media, such as the JS, knew what was coming, yet they still backed him. All one has to do is read the latest Politifact check on him, which is his story of the teacher of the year. The story is an entire pile of BS, yet they give him a half true???? By the way, who's the clown who supposedly talked to Bender? My guess is that you didn't, but even if you did then have you listened to his propaganda? If so then why would you believe anything the guy says?

Thanks, Bender. Predator-enabler Walker... Walker will sell your kids to the highest bidder ... Walker's Wisconsin not safe for children... the headlines and soundbites write themselves, don't they? Wonder how much longer even the Kochs will stomach the guy?

Oh, the outrage among some short sighted right wing protestors. Think Brian Pierick. Not even three degrees of separation from Scott Walker/John Doe I. So the concern for protecting children's privacy is not so far fetched. Is it?

Brian was in the same van full of porn as walker's old and dear friend timothy Russell. both of them had state issued smart phones, fortunately for tussle, they used Pierick's phone to send those pics of their junk to that teenager as they sat outside his home . Since the three of them (walker, pie rick,russel) appear together in so many photos, and have such a close history with Walker's campaign, it's 0 degrees of separation. makes one wonder what Walker himself is really into...it can't possible be Tonette, exclusively. It never is with these types.

C'mon son, defend the double-standard you whiny righties always have, where you get 18 hours if the public airwaves every day to screech your side of the story, but you go into the fetal position once we respond in kind with facts. Screw off.

The hate is well earned? What a nice world view you have. And all of this over an open records request? Talk about straw-man arguments. You are blinded by hatred. Seriously, you do need a vacation to get a grip on life.